Holiday Discounts on Language Products

Holiday gift-giving season is upon us again. The great part about that is the discounts and sales the publishers offer. I remember last year they had some great sales, especially 1-day sales for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the holiday shopping season, and Cyber Monday which, I guess, they just made up. Fine with me. The sales (20% off and more) are great if you are looking to buy a software or audio language product for yourself, but they may also make a great gift for the right person. I have updated the Language Product Coupons page with some of these current and upcoming sales. Keep an eye out for more in December.

Where Are Your Keys

I read an article or two on this new language learning method. Some are touting it as revolutionary, so I had to check it out a little. It is called Where Are Your Keys and employs a structured set of basic dialogues. It is clearly engaging for the right group of people, but I don't see how it is revolutionary in any way. I have an old Berlitz French book that employs pretty-much the same techniques. Except for the sign language, that is. Sign language? Yeah, they actually employ sign language as a sort of medium or reinforcement of the spoken language. I find it a little distracting. Maybe I have it wrong (I only viewed a few demo videos for a few minutes) but it's not for me.

National French Week

It is national French Week here in the US. Since I am studying French, I suppose it is important to me, but then again, I'm studying French every day and every week, so I don't think I'll be doing anything different or special. Someday (when I have time, whenever that is) maybe I will do something special.

Why do we have a National French Week in the US? Don't forget that there is a significant population of French speakers in the US. And I don't mean of the visiting variety. Louisiana has a French speaking community in the hundreds of thousands, and there are also a number in New England (near Quebec, of course). It is one of the significant second languages in the US and a very large number of people are of French lineage to some extent (myself included).

Anyway, celebrate the Frenchness and eat lots of croissants. Salut.

Online Language Communities

In my recent article on language communities I wrote about how easy they are to use, how they are often free and how you can get lots of content and access to a great learning community with the same goals as yourself. What I could only touch on in the short article, however, is just how may of these sites there are on the internet. There really are dozens of them, with such a wide variety of features that virtually anyone can find one (or more) that helps them to achieve their language learning goals. I encourage anyone to investigate a few of them for yourself to see if you can fit them into your learning plan. You may find exactly what you need. See a short list of language communities and other sites.

Learning Turkish

Turkish is one of those really interesting languages that can draw you in before you realize it. Exotic and foreign with interesting sounds and strange ways, but lots of fun. Unlike more popular languages like French, German or Chinese, people will not believe that you are learning Turkish. They will ask you "why are you learning Turkish?" and whatever answer you give them will keep them wondering or just incite more suspicious questions. Also unlike those more popular languages, there aren't a whole lot of published products to learn Turkish. But, if you're motivated, that won't slow you down one bit. I recently added a page on learning Turkish.

Learning a Language in School

I recently wrote an article on learning languages in school. The subject is on my mind because I'll be doing exactly that this year. I'm finally going (back) to school to get some kind of degree in languages. I've been studying languages on my own for a number of years, but I thought that since I enjoy it so much I would start to actually put that to use. First, I want the piece of paper (some call a degree or diploma) that says that I know some languages, or have some linguistics experience, (having a website doesn't really count in the academic world). I'm not sure what I'll be doing after that, but I'll be actively adding to the website the whole time.

Top 100 Language Blogs results

The voting is over, the votes are tallied and the Top 100 Language Blogs results have been posted. This blog is not in the list, it wasn't even nominated :( Actually I doubt it even qualifies. There are too many things I would need to do on this blog for it to qualify, and that time is better spent on my site. Anyway, do check out the list, there are so many good resources there, I'm sure you will find several that would benefit you no matter what your particular language interests are!

Review of Daniel Tammets book Born on a Blue Day

I've mentioned Daniel Tammet in a few blog posts before. He is an autistic savant with some extraordinary abilities with language. Although he has recently released a second book, I realized I haven't posted a proper review of his first one! So here is a review of Daniels first book Born on a Blue Day.

In his book How to Learn Any Language, Barry Farber calls Indonesian the easiest language in the world. Nothing resembling real grammar, verbs don't change, to make something plural just say it twice etc. I haven't yet had a chance to wade into Indonesian, but I bet I would find it interesting to learn someday. If Indoesian interests you, I have put up a page for learning Indonesian with some possible resources for you to check out.

Voting for Top 100 Language Blogs

Lexiophiles has announced their nominations for the top 100 language blogs for 2009. There are four different categories - Language Teaching, Language Learning, Language Professionals and Language Technology. You can vote for your favorite language blogs until July 27th.

Livemocha Growing

Livemocha continues to grow. They are up to 3 million members in 220 countries, which shows that language learning is a serious concern for a lot of people around the world. They have added several languages with even more to come.

Interestingly, they have used their own membership to increase the languages available by 'crowdsourcing.' Members can add and verify content in their native languages, thus making more languages available for other learners. It's smart and guarantees that some of the less commonly learned languages will eventually have learning materials available.

For example, they have content to learn Icelandic, Ukrainian and Estonian - three languages that have very little material available for the learner via published courses.

Other languages available to learn with Livemocha include Arabic, Greek, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Romanian, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

I'm Starting Up the Newsletter Again!

I have some more time available now, so one thing on the site I'd like to work on is the newsetter. I enjoy doing it, and many people have written to me saying that they enjoy it as well. I went back over my notes from the last time I was working on it and I quickly put together a new issue. In case you missed it, you can sign up for the Language Learning Advisor Newsletter here, and you can also find a link to the backissues.

Czech

Last year, I briefly worked with someone bilingual Czech/English. Of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few words of a new language and getting some insights from a native speaker. Incidentally, I broke out a copy of Pimsleur Czech and listened to the first few lessons to compare what he taught me and to work on my pronunciation. There were a few discrepancies. It is not uncommon to find that Pimsleur (or any other language method) necessarily has to focus on one form of pronunciation or one dialect for a beginning learner of a language. There are often other ways to pronounce something, even as common a word as 'thanks.' Keep this in mind as you learn from various sources - stay flexible, adapt and keep learning.

I've added a new page on learning Czech.

How to Learn Japanese

I love when someone submits a really detailed review or contribution.
One visitor who is learning Japanese, went into considerable detail on the methods he used and what he found was effective. This kind of insight from someone who has 'done it' is very helpful for those who are just starting out. He includes an outline of what materials he used, links to resources and how he put it all together. If you are learning Japanese and are interested, read his guide to learning Japanese here.

BYKI Review

BYKI is a flashcard/vocabulary program by Transparent Language. I've used BYKI for Spanish and Swedish (the two languages I've bought the software for) and also for Cornish and Esperanto (using the editing features of the Deluxe version), but also to study for the PTCE (Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam) for my day job as a Pharmacy Technician.

It's a versatile program that can really help fill in some gaps in your study routine if you use it regularly. Read my recent review of BYKI here.

Spoken Here Review

I've taken an interest in endangered languages for quite some time now. I've started searching out articles and books on the subject. One such book is Spoke Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley. I actually found this book a few years ago in Candidas World of Books, an excellent language and travel bookstore in Washington DC that unfortunately is now closed.

Although the book had been on my bookshelf for a long time, I found it again and read it recently. I wrote a review of it here.

Recent Rosetta Stone Upgrades to Version 3

According to a press release from Rosetta Stone, they have updated Filipino (Tagalog), Latin, Turkish and Vietnamese to Version 3, which means they will have the same amount of material (levels 1,2 and 3) as more popular languages like Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

I think this is a big step forward. These languages have very few published multi-media materials to study with, and I think it's great that they are given the same consideration as more popular languages.

There are still a few that haven't been upgraded yet. Thai, Pashto, and Welsh come to mind.

Rosetta Stone Version 3 is now available in 25 languages including: Arabic, Chinese
(Mandarin), Dutch, English (British), English (American), Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Languages on Lost

Lost is one of the hottest shows on TV now, and it's going into its last season next year. One thing I've found interesting about the show is the use of language. Over the course of the show we have seen numerous languages used, from just a sentence or two, right up to significant amounts of dialogue over several episodes.

There have been bits of German, Russian, Spanish and Latin - the 'secret' language of the Others. It was spoken briefly by young Charles Widmore and Juliet (in a typical modern manner of pronunciation) but also by Richard Alpert in a much more convincing tone. (Does this mean that he, Ricardus, is in fact a Roman?)

There was also the use of an African language in Mister Eko flashback scenes in Nigeria. Was it Yoruba? The actor who plays him, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje speaks Yoruba, although I don't recall him speaking any himself.

There has been more use of French (in the episodes with young Rousseau arriving on the island) but even more Korean. If you are learning Korean you must be overjoyed that episodes with Jin, Sun and her family, have included lots of Korean dialogue.

I just like the show, but find its inclusion of language an interesting and fun sidenote.

Assimil Dutch

I just ordered Dutch With Ease from Assimil. I am going to try using professor Alexander Arguelles shadowing technique using this course. I have not used Assimil before, and I have wanted to give the shadowing technique a good try for quite a while.

Although I have some decent materials to work with, I have a limited amount of time. I intend to finish up the Michel Thomas Foundation Dutch course, then use the time in the most intense type of studying I can. I think the most intense thing I could do is Assimil with the shadowing technique.

Miccosukee

I have an interest in endangered languages. So, I've been doing a little research about the endangered languages near to where I live, which limits me to Native American languages in South Florida. The only languages that meet this criteria are the Seminole languages of Creek and Miccosukee, both closely related Muskogean languages that I believe originate from Alabama and Georgia. (Interestingly, there were a number of tribes in Florida before the Seminoles, but were wiped out by disease, slavery and oppression of arriving Europeans, and conquest by other native tribes. The Seminoles arrived later.)

The history of the Native Americans, particularly those in the US southeast, is horrific. Just the fact that these people still exist is inspiring and makes me want to help document their languages, as there are more that have disappeared or died out than now exist. And those that speak them are very few - a few hundred for Miccosukee and not much more for Creek.

Resources to learn these languages are almost non-existent. I found a few texts with audio for Creek and other Muskogean languages. There are a couple of webpages with a few dozen vocabulary words. Not very helpful.

I read an article from 1999 that stated that Rosetta Stone was working with the Miccosukee (as they have with other tribes) to create software to teach their language. I have not heard if that project was ever completed.

I am finishing up a book called Spoken Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley. It makes me want to contribute in some way and help save or at least document endangered or dying languages. But how can I help?

Rosetta Stone IPO First Day

Rosetta Stone (RST) had its opening day on the NYSE and it was a big one. One of the best IPOs in a long time. Why?

They are in a good market - the language learning market is fairly hot and it's growing.

It's at the right time - I know, everyone speaks English so there's no need to learn another language. Well ... when the whole crowd is thinking one way, it might be time to start looking in the other direction. You need every edge to compete and having command of at least one other language can help you do that.

Brand recognition - Rosetta Stone has it like nobody else.

Reliable and growing US sales but they are expanding aggressively into the global market. This is where they can see some really good growth for the next few years.

So, long-term prospects for the stock appear to be good. I'm not trying to rewrite history here. I thought they were crazy to do an IPO now and I said as much. I couldn't tell you why it worked so well for them.

Transparent Language Discounts

Transparent Language is offering 25% off any order for their software language products! If you aren't familiar with them, they make the popular Before You Know It (BYKI) vocabulary flashcard program, as well as the Language Now series for a variety of languages, and the Languages of the World software for a whole slew of uncommon languages.

Transparent Language, Tell Me More and other language product publishers often have discounts or promotions for some or all of their products, but since I have so little time to update the site as I would like, I can't post those coupons in a timely manner. So I am making a coupons page on the site that I can update whenever there is a new discount or promotional offer. I will also post free downloads and product demo links so that visitors have another way to find out about new products. If you are looking to buy some additional learning tools, check this new page of language product coupons and discounts to see if you can take advantage of an offer.

I wanted to post these discounts as soon as possible. This page is brand new and needs some work done, so bear with me as I finish working on it!

Michel Thomas Courses

Several visitors to the site have commented that I haven't used or reviewed Michel Thomas courses. I have in recent months worked through Michel Thomas Foundation Spanish, Advanced Spanish and a little of the Language Builder course.

I will include a full review of these courses and the Michel Thomas method in general in the upcoming months.

I also mentioned in my last post that I was currently working my way (slowly) through Michel Thomas Foundation Dutch. This is a better test of the course because I am a beginner in Dutch. I have been studing Spanish in small doses for a few years, so Spanish is not the best test of the methods effects for me. I will review the Dutch course as well when I am finished.

Update on my Dutch Progress

I'm not really that motivated to learn Dutch, so I'm taking my time. I have been able to do something with it everyday, but as far as a concerted and systematic effort, there has not been much real progress.

I am about 10 chapters into Teach Yourself Dutch (an old version) and about half way (4 cds) into Michel Thomas Dutch Foundation. Vocabulary and some sentences go into Anki, which is the one thing I have been able to use every day, other than listen to music or an audiobook. I have Anki set for 3 minute reviews, so I can guarantee I have at least some exposure to Dutch everyday when I can't do some of the Teach Yourself or Michel Thomas.

One site I just checked out that might be helpful for learning Dutch is www.fluency.nl It is for text-to-speech in Dutch.

Simply type or paste in some Dutch text, choose one of the male or female speakers and it will read the text! It is not perfect, of course, but the words are pretty clear and recognizable, even to a Dutch beginner like me. I think this is good for getting an idea what a particular vocabulary word or sentence might sound like if you don't have any audio for it.

The page is in Dutch, but there is a link for it in English.

PS - You can save the audio file it creates as an mp3!

Bot Colony Conversation Game

We are now only a short way from having a true conversation partner with a virtual person. Imagine the effect it would have on internet language learning worldwide if anyone could practice conversation and learn any language from a native-sounding virtual speaker!

In this article, a company has produced a game that features real spoken interaction with the characters - that is, you speak and they understand, respond to and learn from what you say. So far it is only in English (which would be great practice for someone learning English) but once it is perfected, it could be adapted to other languages. At that point, it is easy to imagine a publisher of language products developing it specifically for learning a language or practicing conversation.

Years from now, it will probably even be free for everyone to learn any language!

Its Greek to Me Chart

I've made comments on this topic before. I find the phrase "it's Greek to me" interesting, because in other languages, Greek isn't always the gibberish of choice. Sometimes it's Arabic or Chinese or some other language. Those phrases tell a little about the language and what it considers gibberish or hard to understand. I came across this link to a chart showing languages and their equivalent of 'Greek' for the same phrase. It's very interesting.

Tammett Learns German

He's doing it again.

Daniel Tammett, the autistic savant who not only has an uncanny ability with numbers, also has an equal affinity for languages. He once learned Icelandic in a week and then appeared on a television show to talk about it. In Icelandic, in Iceland!

Now, he is doing it with German with the same goal. In a week and appear on a TV show. I wish I had one tenth of his learning ability.

I ordered and just received his book Born on a Blue Day. I will post some thoughts on it when I get around to reading it (it's kind of far down on the list at the moment), especially the parts about his language learning ability. Some other books on my reading list are When Languages Die by K. David Harrison and The Way of the Linguist by Steve Kaufmann.

Some New Resources

While looking for more resources to add, I found a very helpful forum for learners of Japanese.

http://kanji.koohii.com/

It is a very active and useful forum, especially for studying the written forms of Japanese. It seems that the members have tried every conceivable method and resource to study it and they can offer some great advice on the subject. I am adding some new resources for Irish, Arabic, and Portuguese as well.

Bengali

The Language Martyrs of International Mother Language Day led me to do a page on learning Bengali I didn't realize what can of worms I would be opening when I did!

I knew the Indian subcontinent had a large number of spoken languages. What I didn't realize was how many of them are quite literally spoken by tens of millions of speakers!

While researching Bengali and the relationships between it and a number of other Asian languages, I was astounded by how many languages there are, how many speakers there are of some of them and what an amazing literary tradition some of them have. With the growth and increasing importance of this part of the world,these languages will become more important to learn and study in coming years.

International Mother Language Day and the Language Martyrs

February 21st is International Mother Language Day. But in Bangladesh, it is celebrated as Language Martyrs Day.

Bangladesh was once known as East Pakistan, after Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain. When Urdu (spoken in Pakistan) was being forced onto Bangladesh as the only official language, the people protested, demanding that Bengali (also known as Bangla) be included as an official language. On February 21st 1952 police fired on protesters, killing several students. This language revolution ultimately led to the 1971 independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

www.2bdutch.nl/

I have a co-worker who is Dutch. I only actually work with her once or twice every couple of months, but it's hard for me to pass up an opportunity to pick up some of a language for free. Native speakers are sometimes hard to come by and are a great resource.

I have some interest in Dutch, so I've been trying to include some time to study a little Dutch so I can be better prepared for those rare times when I can try out some Dutch.

I am about 6 chapters into an old copy of Teach Yourself Dutch, and 2 cds into Michel Thomas Dutch Foundation. I've also managed to download a bunch of Dutch music and a half-dozen audiobooks.

So, finding this website now comes along at just the right time.

This site has lots of videos with subtitles in Dutch and your native language side by side. Music, history, culture, humor, Dutch television programs for immigrants, music videos etc. Lots of content to help you learn Dutch. A great resource!

Learn Japanese From Yoda

Well, not exactly. But, let me explain. It should come as no surprise that George Lucas may have been inspired by Japanese culture for many elements of the Star Wars saga. It is loaded with obviously Japanese-influenced names like Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi with their culture and Samurai lifestyle, etc.

And, as it turns out, Yoda speaks in a very Japanese manner.

So, there is this very interesting blog post and video that could be very helpful to beginning Japanese learners. It teaches some basic Japanese word order using Yoda as an example.

http://www.tofugu.com/2009/01/20/learn-japanese-from-yoda/

It's not really an entire site to learn Japanese from Yoda, but there are lots of interesting features on the site for Japanese learners to explore and have fun.

Language Change Occurs in Rapid Bursts

I seem to be reading a lot of news from New Zealand and Australia lately ...

This article http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20080502-16846-5.html concerns research on change between two languages that have diverged from one. It mentions that much of the vocabulary change occurs rapidly at 'language-splitting events.' It has long been assumed that change happens slowly over time.

The article doesn't go into any detail into what constitutes a 'language-splitting event.' But, since much of the research was done in the Pacific, my first impression was to imagine a group of people packing up and moving to another island, exposing themselves and their language to a new environment and new influences. Another possible 'language-splitting event' the article hints at is when social groups deliberately alter their language in order to distinguish themselves from each other.

This revelation in language evolution seems to parallel findings in Darwinian evolution. It was long thought that evolution occurs slowly over long periods of time, but more recent evidence suggests that significant 'events' force rapid evolutionary changes, followed by long, relatively static periods.

New BYKI Languages

BYKI has even more languages available. The latest additions to the flashcard and review program from Transparent Language include Castilian Spanish, Scottish Gaelic, Dari, Tajiki, Altai, Bashkir, Buriat and Mirandese.

I like that they've made Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish two distinct titles. And I confess I had to look up a couple of those new languages. Thumbs Up to Transparent Language for providing learning materials for some very uncommonly studied languages!

Finnish

The enigmatic Scandinavian tongue. Inspiration for Tolkiens Quenya and Daniel Tammetts Mänti. With its much-feared grammar and case system, it is considered one of the hardest languages to learn.

I have finally put up a Finnish page. I have had a hard time finding resources to learn it. I know there is very little on the commercial side of things, but there are usually some decent materials by teachers and learners. I'll have to keep digging.

A Language Course is a Tax Write-Off!

Did you know that a language course may be written off your taxes? It's an educational expense!
If you happen to have used it for your business then there might be even more ways for you to save on your taxes. For example - if you drove to a language class or tutor, you can write off the gas mileage.

Any materials you buy that can fall under the umbrella of 'language learning' could be used as well. Did you buy any books, music or movies in the language you are learning?

Looking to buy more courses or learning materials this year? Keep all of your receipts for the coming year. Keep in mind as you buy any books, courses or website subscriptions that some of these may be applied to your tax deductions next year.

Take a good look at your purchases and think through how you used them. You may find ways to reduce your taxes that you haven't thought of before!

Ground-breaking Language Research

"The teaching of languages could be revolutionised following ground-breaking research by Victoria University PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger."

This comes from an article on research being done on methods of teaching languages.

"Dr Sulzberger has found that the best way to learn a language is through frequent exposure to its sound patterns—even if you haven't a clue what it all means. "However crazy it might sound, just listening to the language, even though you don't understand it, is critical. A lot of language teachers may not accept that," he says."

The problem I have with this is that it is not so ground-breaking or revolutionary, except to the mainstream media and educational system. To them, 'researchers' are making groundbreaking discoveries, meanwhile people have been using these techniques for years now outside of formal education.

Polyglots like author and radio personality Barry Farber, linguists like Steve Kaufman (Lingq.com), language professors like Alexander Arguelles (ForeignLanguageExpertise.com) and others have been using and touting variations of these techniques for years. It just goes to show how slow to accept change the established educational system is.

Not to take anything away from Dr. Sulzberger, it's important, valuable and necessary work. If this is what it takes to get these techniques into mainstream education then great. Everybody wins.

But these techniques are already proven. I wish that mainstream media wouldn't be so slow to notice, and that the mainstream educational system wouldn't be so slow to put them into use. It would make us all so much better off.

Daniel Tammett Learns Welsh?

Daniel Tammett might learn Welsh. If he does, he'll do it in a week. Not completely, perhaps, and certainly not with a perfect accent. But he'll have a good handle on it. Something that would take most of us many months, if not years.

He's done it before, you see. He was once challenged to learn Icelandic in a week and prove it on a television show in Iceland. He did. Not with a perfect accent and not completely, but he had a handle on it.

If you have never heard of him before, Daniel Tammett is an autistic savant. He has a supernatural understanding of numbers and mathematics, and a similarly unique feel for languages. I am ordering his book Born on a Blue Day in order to study how he learns language. Hopefully I can learn a little something from him. I'll post a review on the site eventually.

What is the Best Language to Learn?

The answer is entirely subjective, of course. If you want or need to learn a particular language, then that one is the best to learn. Nobody can tell you otherwise. But, what if you don't need to learn any particular language, and there isn't one that you find outstandingly appealing? Is there a way to put a number on it to determine objectively which one might be 'best'?

Here's one way to break it down. Spanish is the most commonly studied foreign language in the US. But what kind of return does knowing Spanish give you? On average, a college graduate who knows Spanish as a second language has a 1.7% wage boost over a graduate who doesn't have a second language.

In comparison, knowing French would give you an average of 2.7% boost in earnings. But, knowledge of German, Italian, Chinese or Russian would give you a 4% boost!

Why is that? I think it's a combination of how many people are studying (or not studying) a particular language (and therefore how many people are your competition) versus job opportunities with those languages. There are other factors such as what industries are relevant for each language which could skew those numbers one way or the other.

And how would a much less commonly studied language fare in comparison to those above. I would imagine someone knowing Polish, Vietnamese, Korean or Farsi may be highly prized in certain industries.

If earnings are a key factor in determining which language you will study, take a good hard look at the field you are in to find out which languages are most relevant. Then go for the one with the least number of people studying it. You will then have a greater chance of standing out!

Bring Back Greek and Latin

Up until about a hundred years ago, it was typical for a college-bound student to have already received several years of education (at least 4 if not more) in Greek and Latin, and a modern foreign language or two. This education would continue into college, possibly adding another modern foreign language. This is in addition to history, sciences and other subjects.

Then things started to decline. Here we are today and Latin and Greek are mostly nowhere to be found. Many colleges require 4 years of a foreign language but even that has weakened.
Yes, today we need to put effort into computer science and modern subjects, but overall there seems be a much less complete education than years ago, even though Latin and Greek form such a broad foundation for the other subjects that we study.

This article written by a Columbia College sophomore, is proposing bringing back the requirement to learn Greek and Latin in college rather than (or possibly in addition to) a modern foreign language. He makes a number of great points.

I'm all for it. I regret not having studied Latin and Greek and now I feel like I have to go back and make up for lost time.

Popling for the Unmotivated

So, let's say that you want to learn another language, but you don't really need to. You don't have a specific goal or time-frame in mind, it's just something interesting you've always wanted to do but never got around to it. You might be the kind of person who thinks about taking a class, getting a tutor or buying a language course, but may never actually take action.

Well, here's something for you. Popling.net has a downloadable application for you. It's free. It's effortless.

The program pops up a small window on your screen every once in a while, displaying a flashcard with a fact for whatever you happen to be learning. You can answer it or you can ignore it and it will go away for a little while. Then another will pop up.

They have lots of pre-made sets for different subjects, including for some interesting languages, like Indonesian, and of course the more common languages like Spanish, French and Chinese. An extra feature is the ability to make your own sets, so it is quite flexible and useful for just about anybody.

I just love their tag line - A website + desktop app for people who want to learn, but lack motivation.

Languagelab.com in Secondlife

A few posts ago, I wrote a little bit about SecondLife. I mentioned a company actively teaching languages in Secondlife. After doing some research, I've found them.

They are called LanguageLab. There are dozens of language community sites that use state-of-the-art internet resources and techniques to help people learn a language. But LanguageLab takes it a step further by creating an immersive 3D environment, or rather using the unique online interactive world of SecondLife. Thus far, they are focusing on teaching English, but they have plans to expand their products and teach other languages. This is grounbreaking stuff, and this may be a glimpse into the classroom of the future.

Hindi Podcasts

I'm a big fan of podcasts for language learners because they are free, frequently produced, and are generally loaded with real-life vocabulary and dialogue. I have recently added 2 podcasts for learning Hindi to the Hindi page. There are not many free resources for learning Hindi, so these 2 come in handy.


ISpeakHindi.com
Cuttingchai.com

You may also notice that, although I don't recommend Rosetta Stone in general (at least until I can evaluate the new Version 3), I do recommend it for learning Hindi. There really is nothing else as comprehensive to learn Hindi. Since Rosetta Stone has expanded all of their languages to the full 3-levels, their software is just the most complete solution for learning Hindi for the average self-learner.

Universal Letter-Writing Week

The week of January 8 - 14 is Universal Letter-Writing Week. I don't know who came up with this idea, but it struck a chord with me. We're not talking about an email letter here but a real hand-written letter, which is a dying breed.

I thought about applying this idea to learning a language. I like actually writing things out when I am learning a language. It somehow sinks in better when I physically write something, rather than type it. Even though we have shiny flash card programs and audio courses, it still works for me to just sit down and study and write sentences in a new language.

Writing a letter to someone, whether to a real person or just as an exercise, seems like good practice to me. You can find penpals to exchange letters with here. Writing to a real person is much more in the spirit of this Universal Letter-Writing Week, but in case you don't have someone to send a letter to, writing one as an exercise is just fine.

Languages in Secondlife

Secondlife.com is an online interactive world of truly massive proportions. Rendered in 3D environments, people from all over the world perform ordinary internet functions like chat, form social groups, buy and sell things etc. in a completely immersive environment.Virtually anything can be created or built.

For language learners, there are tons of opportunities to meet people or just experience a virtual world immersed in the language you are learning. Just a brief view of Secondlife opens up a world of potential uses for language learners.

I have little knowledge of Secondlife and no real experience with it. But, I suspect that the possibilities just hinted at in most language community sites could be taken to extraordinary new heights in Secondlife. I already know of one company using Secondlife to teach language (I'll go through my notes and find out more about that and post on it later) and I'll bet that others will follow.

Would anyone having any real experience with learning or using a foreign language in
Secondlife care to comment on it and shed some light?

Sentence Mining

Here is a very interesting article on putting to effective use an SRS program with a technique this blogger calls 'sentence mining.' Glowing Face Man (yes, that's what he calls himself) uses Spaced Repetition software to accumulate and memorize vocabulary, phrases and whole sentences to learn and absorb a new language. It is similar to the 10,000 Sentence method, and is kind of a stripped-down do-it-yourself version of Lingq. I have been using one of these SRS software systems for a little while and find it indispensable. He goes into extensive detail on what an SRS is, what 'sentence mining' is and how to use this concept to learn a new language. His blog also contains lots of other valuable insights into learning a language.

http://www.glowingfaceman.com/2008/12/sentence-mining.html